Bettina Limperg, the Lutheran co-president of the Ecumenical Church Congress, received Holy Communion in a Catholic church.

Thomas Sternberg, fellow co-president and head of the influential lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), received communion during a service at a Protestant church.

The ecumenical convention has attracted hundreds of thousands of people in the past. This year it was not as well attended due to COVID restrictions.

"We live an ecumenical hospitality," Sternberg told reporters at the end of the event called Ökumenischen Kirchentag. "The whole thing touched me very, very deeply."

Bishop Georg Bätzing, the president of the German bishops' conference, told an online discussion in late April that "anyone who is Protestant and attends Communion can receive Communion" at the ecumenical event.

"We want to take steps towards unity," he said, adding that "whoever believes in conscience what is celebrated in the other denomination will also be able to approach [the altar] and won't be rejected." He said the practice is already "maintained up and down the country" and is actually "nothing new."

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had earlier described the invitation as a provocation.

"Anyone who contradicts Catholic teaching and its binding interpretation by the Roman teaching office is no longer Catholic," the cardinal told the German press agency DPA.

Last September, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent a four-page critique and letter to Bishop Bätzing explaining that doctrinal differences with Protestants are "still so weighty" that "mutual participation in the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist" was not possible.

Following the Vatican intervention, Bätzing repeatedly ruled out general intercommunion, while saying that he respects the "personal decision of conscience" of individual Protestants to receive Communion in Catholic churches.

Pope Francis' has made frequent statements that it should be left both to an individual's conscience and to local bishops to decide over whether Holy Communion for Protestants can be allowed, especially with regards Protestant spouses. This model of decentralization is "the way that we're trying," Bishop Bätzing said last month.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

National Catholic Register

The bishop told KNA, Germany's Catholic news agency, May 11 that the services planned May 15 were not about "cross-denominational Communion in the sense of a general mutual invitation to participate in the Eucharist and the Lord's Supper" and were not about shared Communion services by clerics of various denominations.

Rather, they were about how to deal with the personal decision of conscience of individual Catholic or Protestant Christians, the bishop said.

"I respect such a decision and administer Communion if someone joins who believes what we Catholics believe and wants to receive the body of the Lord in faith in the real presence of Jesus Christ," he told KNA. Continue reading

Even as Catholics in Germany plan a national protest against the Vatican's ban on blessing on same-sex couples, Bishop Georg Bätzing has insisted that the protestors "are not schismatics".

"Our bond with Rome and the Holy Father is very tight," said Bätzing, just days before the May 10 protest.

The nationwide protest event was organised after Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) made a decree stating that Church does not have the power to bless homosexual unions.

German Church leaders say the Vatican's ban on such blessings is unchristian because it openly excludes people based on their sexual orientation.

The CDF document was discussed at the country's ongoing "Synodal Way", which expressed disagreement.

Bishop Bätzing said blessing same-sex couples was one of many topics discussed at the Synodal Way's forum on sexual morality.

The multi-year process brings together bishops and lay people to discuss four main topics: the way power is exercised in the Church; sexual morality; the priesthood; and the role of women.

The 60-year bishop said that the German Church started the "Synodal Way" in response to the clerical abuse and plummeting membership.

Record numbers of German Catholics have left the Church in recent years, with 272,771 people formally deserting it in 2019.

Bishops and cardinals outside of Germany have been increasingly critical of the debates in the country.

Retired Cardinals Camillo Ruini of Italy and George Pell of Australia are among those who have raised concern about the Synodal Way, which they fear is leading to a "de facto schism".

"There is a percentage of the German Church that seems to be resolutely heading in the wrong direction," said Pell, who currently resides in Rome.

Bishop Bätzing also commented on the debate in Germany over whether Protestants should be invited to receive Holy Communion in Catholic churches.

The Limburg bishop said that the current debate was not about a general invitation to Protestants to receive Communion, but rather about the Church's approach to individual non-Catholic Christians who wish to receive the Eucharist.

He said: "I personally respect such a decision and do not deny Communion when someone presents themselves who believes what we Catholics believe and desires to receive the Lord."

Sources

• La Croix International
• Catholic News Agency
• CathNews NZ Pacific

In a March 16 press release, organizers of the third Ecumenical Church Congress (ÖKT) in Frankfurt said that they planned to invite Christians to attend celebrations "in many churches" in the city and across Germany on May 15.

According to CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner, they said: "Christians of all denominations have the opportunity on this evening to come and enter, to get to know different traditions and — following their own conscience — to celebrate the living memory of Jesus Christ."

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Bishop Georg Bätzing said it was necessary to respect the "personal decision of conscience" of those seeking to receive Communion.

CNA Deutsch reported that Bätzing responded to a question about a controversial proposal for a "Eucharistic meal fellowship" between Catholics and Protestants.

The proposal was made by the Ecumenical Study Group of Protestant and Catholic Theologians (ÖAK) in a 2019 document entitled "Together at the Lord's Table."

The ÖAK adopted the text under the co-chairmanship of Bätzing and the retired Lutheran Bishop Martin Hein.

Asked how he would respond if a Protestant came to him seeking the Eucharist, he told reporters: "I have no problems with it and I see myself in line with papal documents."

The 59-year-old bishop added that this was already a "practice" in Germany "every Sunday". He said priests in his Diocese of Limburg would not face negative consequences if a case were reported to him.

He underlined that one should not "simply invite everyone."

A general invitation to receive the Eucharist was not permitted. But Bätzing said it was important to show "respect for the personal decision of conscience of the individual" seeking Communion.

"I do not deny Holy Communion to a Protestant if he asks for it," he said.

The ÖAK document raised concerns at the Vatican. It prompted an intervention by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in September 2020.

In a letter to Bätzing, the doctrinal congregation emphasized that significant differences in understanding of the Eucharist and ministry remained between Protestants and Catholics.

"The doctrinal differences are still so important that they currently rule out reciprocal participation in the Lord's Supper and the Eucharist," it said.

"The document cannot therefore serve as a guide for an individual decision of conscience about approaching the Eucharist."

The CDF cautioned against any steps towards intercommunion between Catholics and members of the EKD.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

National Catholic Reporter

CathNews New Zealand

He presented his interpretation of the German bishops' conference "pastoral guidance"at a meeting of the Council of Priests of the Archdiocese of Paderborn last week.

He says he told his presbyteral council that the pastoral guidance offers spiritual help for the decision of conscience in individual cases, along with pastoral care.

He also told the council he has "formulated the expectation that all pastors in the archdiocese would familiarise themselves intensively with the guidance document and would act in a spirit of pastoral responsibility."

Stressing that this expectation does not constitute a "general permission" to receive holy communion, he explained his thinking.

Inter-denominational marriage is "denomination-uniting," he says.

Through their baptism, their Christian faith and their sacrament of marriage, two Christians in such [Catholic/Protestant] marriages "are united."

The Protestant spouse in such cases may have a longing and a strong desire to receive the Eucharist and therefore it is "a matter of arriving at a responsible decision of conscience," Becker says.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Catholic News Agency

One of these concerns a proposal from some German bishops about communion for Protestants married to Catholics; the bishops want to know whether Protestants should be allowed to receive Communion at Mass in special cases.

Francis told reporters requests for communion have to be decided by individual bishops and cannot be decided by a bishops' conference.

Nor can national guidelines drafted by the German bishops' conference for allowing communion to such couples be published.

He said this is because the guidelines went beyond what is foreseen by the Code of Canon Law "and there is the problem."

The Code does not provide for nationwide policies, he said, but "provides for the bishop of the diocese (to make a decision on each case), not the bishops' conference."

"This was the difficulty of the debate. Not the content," he said.

Cardinal-designate Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote to the German bishops early this month saying "the Holy Father has reached the conclusion that the document has not matured enough to be published."

Francis told the in-flight reporters the guidelines will have to be studied more.

He said he believed an "illustrative" type of document may need to be made "so that each diocesan bishop could oversee what the Code of Canon Law permits.

There was no "stepping on the brakes," he said.

Other topics Francis discussed with reporters included:

• Recent reluctance to take in refugees
• Human rights' serious crisis state
• Dialogue and mediation conflict resolution
• Youth and the pre-Synod meeting in March

Source

• The Boston Pilot
• The Tablet
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The letter signed by Congregation's prefect, Cardinal-designate Luis Ladaria, says Pope Francis has concluded that their statement "has not matured enough to be published."

Instead, it suggested, the bishops should continue the practice of judging specific situations.

Early last month he hosted a meeting with a group of German bishops.

Those present included supporters and opponents of the document.

Officials from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts also attended the meeting.

A Vatican statement was issued at the end of the meeting.

It said:"Pope Francis appreciates the ecumenical commitment of the German bishops and asks them to find, in a spirit of ecclesial communion, a result as unanimously as possible."

Ladaria's letter, which was published on an Italian blog "Settimo Cielo," lists three main issues:

• The question of the admission to Communion of Lutheran Christians in interconfessional marriages is a theme that touches on the faith of the Church and has relevance for the universal Church."
• "Such a question has effects on ecumenical relations with other churches and other ecclesial communities that cannot be undervalued."
• The matter also involves Church law, particularly the interpretation of canon 844 of the Code of Canon Law.

The text of the German guidelines has never been made public.

However, it has been widely assumed to foresee situations where a Lutheran married to a Catholic and regularly attending Mass with the Catholic spouse, could receive the Eucharist on a regular basis.

In many countries, bishops allow this on special occasions, such as to a parent during their child's baptism or first Communion.

Ladaria's letter said because of varying interpretations of the canon, "the competent dicasteries of the Holy See already have been charged with producing a timely clarification of such questions on the level of the universal Church.

"In particular," he said, "it appears opportune to leave to the diocesan bishop the judgment about the existence of a ‘grave necessity'" that would permit Christians of other denominations to receive the Eucharist at a Catholic Mass.

Source

• CruxNow
• America Magazine
• National Catholic Register
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Our Lady of Dover

He offered his opinion at Katholikentag, a Muenster-based conference drawing tens of thousands of Catholics from German-speaking Europe.

"Let us seek ways of expressing the common Christian faith by sharing in the Last Supper and Communion. I am sure thousands of Christians in interdenominational marriages are hoping for this."

Steinmeier said he was speaking "not as Federal President, but as an avowed Evangelical Christian who lives in an interdenominational marriage."

His views followed last week's Vatican direction to German bishops to come to an agreement among themselves about whether Protestants married to Catholics may receive Communion under certain circumstances.

While most of the German bishops' conference supported the sharing of communion, seven said it violated Church teaching.

The issue dominated the Katholikentag conference.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who is the president of the German bishops' conference and the main proponent of the plan, echoed Steinmeier's words.

"When someone is hungry and has faith, they must have access to the Eucharist. That must be our passion, and I will not let up on this," he said.

He says Protestant spouses of Catholics "in individual cases" and "under certain conditions" may receive Holy Communion, provided they "affirm the Catholic faith in the Eucharist."

One celebrity who spoke at the conference was Protestant German comedian, Eckart von Hirschhausen.

He demanded to be "handed that wafer" because, since he is married to a Catholic, he pays Church tax.

"I don't see the point of a public debate about wafers," he said, referring to the Blessed Sacrament. In his view, climate change is a far more serious issue.

He later apologised for his comments.

Cardinal Rainer Woelki disagreed. "As a Catholic, I would never speak of a wafer," he said.

"Using this concept alone demonstrates that we have a very different understanding" of the Blessed Sacrament, in which "Catholics encounter Christ Himself."

Woelki called for all parties to "consider and recognise that the Eucharist is ordered to the unity of the creed."

Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg criticised the tone of the conference, saying it was in danger of being "intrumentalised" by supporters of the proposal.

Public pressure that does not appreciate the depth of the doctrinal issues at stake is very unhelpful, he said.

In his view, the intercommunion debate in Germany is a matter of doctrine that requires the unanimity of the universal Church if it is to proceed.

Source

• Catholic Herald
• National Catholic Register
• Catholic Citizens of Ilinois
• Image: Deutschlandfunk
  

Although several news sources say Francis has already rejected a draft plan to allow non-Catholics who are married to Catholics to receive Communion in certain circumstances, it seems this is not the case.

German Bishops' Conference president, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, says he has "welcomed the request of Pope Francis who proposed a discussion in Rome" about the draft plan.

Marx says the draft was adopted by a three-quarters majority of the German Bishops' Conference after an "intense debate" on 22 February.

However, on 22 March, seven bishops wrote to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity seeking their "assistance" and "clarification."

They questioned whether the draft plan was outside the competence of an episcopal conference.

In particular, they asked if it was of a pastoral nature, as Marx had suggested, or of a doctrinal nature.

If it is doctrinal, unanimous adoption and Roman approval are both required.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, says "Neither the Pope nor we bishops can redefine the sacraments as a means of alleviating mental distress and satisfying spiritual needs.

"They are effective signs of the grace of God."

The Code of Canon Law already provides that in the danger of death or if "some other grave necessity urges it," Catholic ministers licitly administer penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick to Protestants.

This can only be in cases where the person "cannot approach a minister of their own community and who seek such on their own accord, provided that they manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments and are properly disposed."

Source

• La Croix
• Catholic Herald
• Catholic News Agency
• Crux Now
• Image: LifeSiteNews

Pastor Jens Kruse of Rome's Evangelical Lutheran Church told the National Catholic Register that Lutherans has felt this door was closed "for an eternity".

But last month, during a visit to Pastor Kruse's church, Pope Francis urged a Lutheran woman married to a Catholic to "talk to the Lord" about receiving Catholic communion.

She should then "go forward" the Pope said, but he cautioned that he "wouldn't ever dare to allow this, because it is not my competence".

Pastor Kruse said he feels there is "no danger" of a Lutheran receiving the Eucharist "in the wrong way" because he would be "receiving Jesus Christ and not the teachings of the Catholic Church".

He also stated that the Pope had introduced a new approach to the Eucharist, no longer viewing it as the end of ecumenism, but rather a "gift on the way to unity".

The pastor said the problem with intercommunion between Catholics and Lutherans is not different beliefs about the Eucharist.

"The problem is the understanding of priesthood," Pastor Kruse said.

"That creates the differences and the Pope said: ‘No, there's the presence of Jesus Christ, in the Lutheran and the Catholic Eucharist.'"

Pastor Kruse added: "We're both part of the Church of Jesus Christ through our Baptism and we have the same faith. There are no big differences, no obstacle to us to do it [worship] together."

He noted that "Lutherans [already] participate in the Catholic Eucharist and Catholics participate in the Lutheran Eucharist, because for the people, it's just the same.

"And they are right, because in the theology of the Eucharist there are no great differences."

" . . . it's Jesus Christ who invites us to participate, it's not the Catholic or Lutheran Church, and it's not a question of Lutheran dogmas or Catholic dogmas."

The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship recently rejected the idea of wider intercommunion, beyond rare circumstances where baptised non-Catholic Christians can receive Catholic Communion.

Sources

• National Catholic Register
• Catholic Culture
• Aleteia
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Lutheran World

In an interview with aleteia.org, Cardinal Robert Sarah said intercommunion between Catholics and other Christians is not a matter of following one's conscience.

Rather, intercommunion between Christians not united in faith and doctrine would promote profanation, he said.

His comments came a few weeks after Pope Francis spoke to a Lutheran woman with a Catholic spouse, after she expressed her regret they could not receive Catholic Communion together.

The Pope said that while he didn't dare to give her permission to receive Catholic Communion because it was not his competence, he said she should "talk to the Lord and go forward" from there.

The Pope emphasised the fact that if Christians have the same Baptism, they must walk together.

Speaking to aleteia.org, Cardinal Sarah said that many priests have told him they give Communion to everyone.

The cardinal said this is "nonsense".

"Sometimes, an Anglican who is very far away from his church for a very long period of time and who desires to receive Communion, can participate in Mass and receive Communion in the Catholic Church, where there is no sin, and he is properly married," the cardinal said.

"Because they believe in the Eucharist, even if in the Anglican church is it not actually the Eucharist because there is no priesthood.

"But it is rare and would happen under very exceptional circumstances.

"This is something extraordinary and not ordinary."

Cardinal Sarah continued: "But a Catholic cannot receive communion in the Anglican church, because there is no Communion; there is only bread."

"The bread is not consecrated, because the priest is not a priest.

"With the break of Henry VIII with the Catholic Church, priestly orders in the Anglican Church became null and void.

"So the consecration isn't valid, and therefore it's not the Eucharist."

Sources

• Aleteia.org
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Rorate Caeli